HOUR 3: Jay Stevens weighs in on Florida’s game 5 Stanley Cup Finals win against Edmonton | Utah …
number one miss any part of the show every moment of every show is available in podcast form by searching Hans and Scotty on your favorite podcasting platform or online at kslsports.com this is Hance Olsen and Scotty G on 975 the KSL Sports Zone the final seconds tick away and the Panthers are 52 winners here in game five in Edmonton the Panthers take a 32 lead in the Stanley Cup final and the Panthers will head home for Tuesday night’s game six needing just one win to make it back-to-back Stanley Cups well Jay I gave you your due over the weekend i called you the great Jamus because you pretty much predicted the exact form and outcome of game four and then right before game five I texted you or maybe there there was a score on the board i said “Will Edmonton get back in this one?” He said “No no I don’t think they’ll get back in this one.” Yeah and Florida quickly scored right after I texted you so you pretty much called the whole weekend nobody was more surprised than I was when that panned out the way I said it was going to pan out but yeah because you called Edmonton an OT in game four and Florida had to score with whatever 14 seconds left just to force OT so So when you got to that point I’m like ah Jay was close i was I was happy with being close and then 14 seconds hits Florida scores it goes 44 goes into OT and I’m like oh dude if Edmonton pulls this off that’s when I started texting you if Edmonton pulls this in a in a OT we got a lot of talking to do but it did it played out like you saw it in game four and game five yeah i I just thought Edmonton had another gear in them and I knew that like Florida is one of the best teams I’ve ever seen in my however many years I’ve been watching the sport and the way they’re built the trades they brought in the you know the icing on the cake is just getting Marawn for what is now a first round pick but was initially a second or third round but uh he Marawn is playing the best hockey I’ve ever seen him play and this is this is coming from a guy who absolutely hated watching him play forever he was my least favorite player in the NHL and I always said if he’d be clean he’s so good if he would just get rid of the stupidity is that why you didn’t like him i Yeah that’s exactly why I didn’t like him he would do something great and then two minutes later he’d do something stupid and be in the penalty box or upset the balance of the game with a cheap shot whether it got called or not and it upset the balance of the game and get everybody fired up and you know he did as much damage as he did good and now you’re watching him just be the best he’s ever been and he’s on the third line so how do you match that right if you’ve got if you’re trying to match line for line you don’t want your first line on the ice with their first line so you typically try to balance one for two um but what do you do when the third line isn’t a third line what do you do when a third line is as good as your second line but producing like your first line so Edmonton’s just has a different twist and flare yeah i mean Edmonton’s swimming uphill right now they have and they’re in panic mode you keep seeing them panic oh what goalie are we going to play oh who are we going to pull out of the lineup we got to change our D they’re pulling great people out of the lineup because they got beat by better people in a bad matchup and it’s that panic that is giving Florida just an easy path like I was saying this was going to go seven i now think it’s over tomorrow okay so you think Florida ends it in Florida i think Florida ends it in Florida i mean when they go in and get the the win in Edmonton and as you mentioned Marshawn Mar they kick things off marawn with two quick goals unbelievable yeah and what I didn’t understand so he is third line so he comes in in third line and hits those two yeah he’s a first line guy he’s been in first line guy most of his career like probably when he started he wasn’t but the last several years he’s been one or two right first or second line but to come in here and just be like he is just such a team guy all of a sudden which wasn’t him before and he’s just like “Hey I’m fine being on the third line and I’m going to be the hardest working guy on the ice every time.” that play that first goal off the faceoff he beats the He beats the entire Edmonton team to the puck edmonton won that faceoff that’s the part that that gets lost on a little a lot of people right edmonton won that faceoff he stepped in nurse didn’t read the play right nurse should have stepped in front of him and taken that ice and instead he he steals the puck and goes in splits the D everybody thinks he’s going wide to look for a pass and he splits the D and just manhandles the defenseman i can’t remember who it was but um he manhandles that defenseman and then pulls that shot off with two guys coming up on top of him and that’s not what you expect to see out of a third line guy and you just can’t match it i think was it Bashard might have been Buchard i I thought it was but just incredible performance by Marawn and and I don’t know what you do it was Buchard y and and here’s the thing i don’t know like when I watch Florida play I don’t I don’t even know what you can put on the ice in a seven game series because that’s the difference it’s the seven game series like a one-off you could sneak past it you can luck into it you could find a way to out physical them but they are incredible gamesmen in a seven game series they’re playing for game five in game one they’re playing for game four in game two yeah exa Exactly what we were talking about at the beginning of the season right like you’re looking you’re you’re you’re finishing every check you’re maybe throwing a little more emphasis on a check that you wouldn’t normally and then you’re you’re rushing to every puck you’re you’re trying to win every battle harder than you’ve ever tried before and that’s weird to say because you know these guys have to play at their best every night but then you got to find another gear and you just got to beat your opponent down with body shot after body shot after body shot right you’re not looking for the knockout in game one you’re looking for a body shot you don’t want them to be the same people in game five that they are in game one and if it goes game seven you want them to be just damaged and bruised and it goes both ways like you’re when you’re throwing those hits you’re getting a little banged up too but it’s better to give than receive right so now game six going back to Florida florida gets the win in game five in Edmonton now headed back to Florida game six Florida leading 3-2 jay says he thinks it’s over coming up tomorrow um I I want to know is it going to be Pickard no do Okay so you think Edmonton is going to go back to good old staple it it has to they have to go back to Skinner they they tried the Picker thing it didn’t work one of the main things that didn’t work and the TNT guys nailed it um having Lquist back there breaking down goalending for you i mean that’s that’s a master class on what’s going on and he called it immediately he said “Skinner’s gonna give the team a charge but the thing that he misses um or Picard was gonna give him a a charge but that the thing that he misses that Skinner has is the ability to play the puck behind the net.” And with as fast and as hard as Florida for checks because Florida will do a dump and chase they have they don’t care they’re they’ll they’ll try to beat you one-on-one or they’ll dump the they’ll do like a cross corner dump and chase the puck and try to hit your defenseman if your goalie doesn’t come out and stop that then you’ve got guys coming full speed and that’s what that was the difference right bicard didn’t get get behind the net enough to break up that play skinner does skinner’s really good at playing the puck plus he’s been phenomenal all the playoffs to try and hang anything on him is just but that’s that’s what Edmonton and Montreal and Toronto those markets if you lose a lot of fans just hang it on the goender no matter what his save percentage is no no matter what the you know those those oddman rushes and there’s just so many things that add up to goenders and that that’s what breaks goalenders in those leagues do you think that Skinner is gonna be scrambled eggs though no he’s shown that he’s prepared for this market he’s been you kind of jerked around quite a bit uh we used to call it the yo-yo cuz you you know you pump your goalie then you pull your goalie then you pump your goalie up then you pull your goalie and you’re just yo-yoing with their emotions but Skinner shown that he’s like he’s just pretty mellow even sitting on the bench for the last game i think they could have put him back in after they went down two zip or you know I think there was there was a time that they could have put him in and let him shine and he would have just came back in and been just fine m I think he’s more mentally tough than than they’re giving him credit for um and that’s another thing that Lquist pointed out during the game is that you know he’s a great puck player he’s very mentally tough he’s pretty nonchalant during game days which is either it’s a sign that your goalie doesn’t care or doesn’t get it or it’s a sign that your goalie just believes in himself and doesn’t have to have all the other traditions and rituals because I know a lot of goalies that you can’t look at them in the eye you can’t talk to them you can’t you know they just they’re going to go do their thing and you just got to stay away from them puck report Voice Jay Stevens hanging out with us for the hour giving us some great insights here into the Stanley Cup finals and we are going to get into the number four pick that the Mammoth have coming up we’ll get into some of that stuff here in just a little bit but I got to know um just because I’m I’m trying to find my bearings a little bit because I just watched Dallas fire their coach yeah uh after three straight conference run finals runs yeah was it three straight if Nblock loses again let’s say he loses in six and now this is backto back Stanley Cup like do I now this could be a really stupid question or it could be an interesting question because it feels like Edmonton fans are done they’re taking off their jerseys they got Florida jerseys underneath you got fans doing dumb things throwing throwing their jerseys like the Maple Leafs fans did exactly yeah does Edmonton have space for a guy like Knoblock if he gets ran out in six i think you got to give him a little bit more of a wide birth and granted I’m I’m throwing him under the bus here talking about how he’s panicking right now yeah because the management of the goalie is a sign that he’s panicked for sure for sure but this is different than what happened in Dallas knoblock’s not blame blaming his goalending knob’s not um he’s not pulling his goalies at the wrong time he’s kind of he’s doing the right things at the right time uh the panic part is trying that’s the that’s that you got to be the perfect chemist in the in the science lab right when you’re dealing with all these lines and all these personalities and all these people and you’re trying to balance all that who’s going to perform who’s going to you know step up it’s it’s hard to as a coach it’s hard to always master that and you watch guys through playoffs and you’ll get guys that’ll get better and better and better in playoffs and then you’ll also get guys that you’ve counted on all regular season that kind of just disappear they’re not doing what they were doing during the regular season so as a head coach you got to find a way and so I I don’t think he should have been playing with the Lions but I’m just a fireman so what do I know right but I he’s he’s panicking a little bit he’s playing with the Lions i don’t think he gets fired i think he’s got at least another year at trying to play it out um but it is like I’ve told you in the beginning uh the pressure cookers man Toronto and Edmonton and Montreal if you’re playing in those three markets it’s it’s as is as bad as it can get for a player or a coach it’s the most pressure cooker fishbowl you can be in everybody’s watching everything you do and everybody’s an expert in those areas too right everybody knows everything about the game and there’s you know what do we have in Utah now five podcasts that we talk about the mammoth mhm there’s a hundred in Edmonton and they’re constantly just you know voicing their opinion and it gets that leaks through so it’s a cooker like you know management listens to a little bit or they’ll hear it players will hear it or they’ll be a guest on a show and then they’ll hear other stuff so those guys get a lot of pressure that the rest of the markets don’t get like Utah doesn’t get it uh LA might get it a little bit the Rangers definitely get it but it’s just not like that anywhere else so they’re I don’t know the I guess the fans could tilt it a little bit but if you’re the GM and you hired that guy and you know what you hired for and you get to the championship you get to the the cup finals two years in a row and you lose to one of the best built teams in the history of the NHL and they really are the the depth is ridiculous on Florida it’s just you don’t see that kind of depth all four lines are solid um Babroski which was a just you know they again they brought him in they signed him to a long-term contract with the full intention of him being their backup goalie and teaching the kid they drafted first overall like they they thought that they were going to have this phenomenal goalender and that Bob Rosski would just be the senior leadership and he’s just stolen the show he’s the postseason show yeah and he had a shut out rolling until about eight minutes left in the third he should have gotten a shut out he didn’t get a shut out i think if he gets those shut outs he’s in the running for the consm right now it’s going to be Marawn or it should be Bennett i think Bennett and Marawn are up for the Cons when’s the last When’s the last time we saw a goalie on the Cons the last time I remember is uh Ron Hexall but I’ll have to I’ll have to double check but Ron Hexall won it and they when he lost the Stanley Cup oh one of the only goalies to ever win when they lost the Stanley Cup and it was it was ironically to Edmonton wow that’s incredible yeah that you could win a you could you could win that that level at and not win the the series he was like the only reason that the Flyers were in that series back then well McDavid won it last year on the losing side is that right i don’t know i’ll have to look that up too i should know i watched every minute of it but um McDavid deserves it i don’t I don’t Did he win it last year i I thought he lost it last year on the on the losing side of the series i’ll have to look it up cuz because I thought I remember him going into the locker room and them calling his name and them thinking he’d come back out of the locker room for the trophy ceremony and he didn’t yeah he won it 2024 yeah cuz I remember thinking Yeah and then somebody told me you just don’t do that in the NHL any self- glorification nope it gets you in a garbage can in the in the uh the locker room 100% even Even as an MVP yep i see i love that about the NHL it’s such a self-governing body and even like Yeah it’s you just even if if you’re super mad that you lost it and that you and you’re glad that you won the cup or you won the the trophy you can’t come out and try to take anything away from the team that just won the cup jay Stevens going to be hanging out with us uh we’re going to get right into the Mammoth draft situation they’ve got the fourth pick jazz were unlucky mammoth got very very lucky in the NHL draft lottery end of things jumped up to the fourth pick we’re going to talk to Jay about the talent that resides around number four the mammoth ability to maybe move and manipulate the order will they jump will they move that pick for some product we’ll go through those things with Jay see how aggressive the Mammoth are going to be and what this season’s going to look like when it opens up i mean we’re we’re not we’re not too far out we’re about four months away yeah that it’s going to be kind of quick draft is coming up on the 27th it’s going to be exciting to see what happens a lot of free agency stuff’s going to happen July 1st i’ve written backtoback articles i haven’t published the other one yet but the other one’s on KSL Sports right now and uh about what I think the Mammoth are going to do and the other one should drop tomorrow I think we’re doing with the podcast oh Wednesday when the podcast drops very good we come back and we get into the Mammoth Drat situation where are they going to go with this draft man Jay Stevens it’s going to be fun tells us next looking for the latest on the Jazz Utes Cougars and Aggies we’ve got you covered this is Hance Olsen and Scotty G on 975 the sports zone [Applause] Man I was wandering around sitting in some of these Camaros and you lose track of time pretty quick Jay yeah I guess we both did these cars are absolutely gorgeous i’d love people to come down just take a look at the showroom but if you need a new vehicle John Watson Chevrolet has got you covered all right we got the big NHL draft coming up and the Utah Mammoth jump up to number four as you take a look at the current pool of talent Jay how sure are you that there’s somebody in there that can help the Utah Mammoth and and is it somebody that can help within the next year two years three years so that’s the big question right because when you go from 14 to four you’re looking you’re saying “Okay I’m going to draft an 18-year-old kid that can make the roster right now.” And that’s that’s the difference that’s why you think it’s it’s such a big jump and there’s you know your top five guys and the top five guys are not agreed upon through most of the NHL number one’s pretty much guaranteed right everybody knows that Schaer is going to probably go number one and then it comes down is it going to be Misa uh who’s a phenomenal player in the OL james Hagens the thing that sticks out about Hagens that he could jump into the Mammoth lineup is he hasn’t been playing in juniors he’s been playing at college so instead of playing because in juniors you play 16 to 20 year olds and you know in college you’re playing guys that already played juniors and then you’re and you know now they came to college so you’re probably playing 20 to 24 year olds there will be some 18 year olds in there like like Hagens is but that’s the difference they’ve already been playing against men so you judge them based on they’re already playing against men young men but men and how are they going to perform now in this roster and you know we’ve seen it you know and those guys are super young and it takes some time to gain their momentum and and figure out how to play against you know guys with not just not just bigger bodies but more experience and a better read of the ice and and at that you you’ve never played that speed before so to go bigger bodies bigger speed or faster speed I would say that that would put him at the top of Utah’s like look but you’ve also got that Porter Marone that’s a physical gritty they compare him to Kachchuck a little bit okay you know little nasty and gnarly huh and I I have made no sense his last name is Capone uh Martone oh Porter Martone okay and he’s been anywhere from up at the top like people see it he’d be a top three i’m looking at one right now that has him going six for four uh the funny thing is that Brady Martin and you know the the team took him out to dinner they really like him and he could be a player they want to draft but they’re not going to I don’t think they’re going to take him for what could happen and what I’m starting to feel more positive about happening the more I read the more I watch the more game tape I watch the more people from the Mammoth organization I talk to I feel like they’re going to make a trade with and get an established player and move back in the draft alone okay so how do you feel about that i feel like that’s a that’s a great move depending on who they go with and and as I started researching it more and going diving into some rosters I went through and I’m like “All right what teams are starting the rebuild process right now?” And the biggest team that jumps out is Austin they just got rid of their captain because they’re like “Yeah we’re not going to resign him.” That’s a huge deal right if they’re going to dump their captain the odds are they can start dumping other guys too so you could be looking at a Jeremy Swayman going who they just signed to a long-term deal um that they’re probably going to try to dump so if if they want to move up and you could get like a a Swayman or a Makavoy which man if if you would have said that to me six months ago I would have said you’re out of your mind but the more I look at it I think yeah when it’s available yeah it’s the same thing as when uh what’s the kid that the Jazz got rid of that was Donovan Mitchell so everybody loved this kid right he’s supposed to be He’s our superstar the Jazz go you know what we’re rebuilding again dump him move him out yeah so if they if had new had new management new front office and said we’re going to we’re going to totally change pace yeah and that kid was supposed to be the future of the Jazz right oh yeah so this is the similar thing and you see that going on with Boston right now they got rid of their captain i think other things are on the table and if you look at Buffalo and I know everybody’s just chomping at the bit for Utah to make some kind of a trade with Buffalo to get Tae Thompson i don’t think he’s on the market but Buffalo has other parts and Buffalo’s been in a rebuild for I think 17 years like they they haven’t made the they haven’t made the playoffs they So they’re rumored to be restarting pittsburgh is another team that’s that’s going to start the rebuild i’m not saying we’re going to get Crosby or Malcolin or any of that stuff but they have a couple uh players like Brian Rust who’s a phenomenal two-time Stanley Cup champion he’s older so if Utah made a trade with Pittsburgh and steps back in the draft they pick up Rust maybe two draft picks and they still get that Martin kid that they want anyway yeah so I can see that happening again a month ago if you would have said that to me I would have said “No way.” But the more that this is playing out the more that it looks like Sam Bennett is going to be a Khan Smite winner in the Stanley Cup championship and win another cup the more I think the the realness of us having a chance to get Sam Bennett is gone i I think Marawn and Bennett resign and stay forever i do in Florida what about Mner i don’t just so Marner’s it’s up to him and he’s going to pick a a team teams are going to come after him we already know Anaheim’s going to come after him and and teams are going to find ways to come up with $10 million to bring him in the team that comes after him with $10 million over five to eight years that’s also a contender right now okay but how important is it that it’s a contender right now it’s extremely important to him that it’s a contender then that could be tough for the mammoth i could I would see yeah cuz we’re they know we have promise they know we have we’re starting to build depth we have young depth that’s the other reason I can see us getting rid of this uh fourth overall pick it just kind of gives us that extra little niche or you know little push to get something bigger yeah you know and it doesn’t have to be a young guy that we have to develop we already have a lot of young guys to develop we’re going to see that now with Simashv and with Boots and we’ve got other guys coming in i still think Cole Bodween even though he’s only 18 I think he has a real shot at making the team well he he’ll be 19 if he doesn’t play in the NHL he has to play in back in juniors he can’t go to the AHL but I think he has a shot at making it just because he’s he’s a big body um so I just once Bennett was off and Barner’s off because Martner’s not going to pick Utah i think Colorado could offer him seven or eight million and he’d go there because you’d have because you’re in it yeah he’d be the difference for them you got two of the top players in the world on that team absolutely so he could he could just be a a perfect piece to get the Avalanche back in it and and I think which would make me just disgusted i think it’ll make a lot of people disgusted i don’t want to see good things for the Golden Knights or the Avalanche now yeah it’s tough isn’t it i just want to see the Mammoth start to grow same how how how far out are we with TJ Glo i still say he’s he’s got to play another full year juniors i don’t think he stands a chance of making the roster this year okay i’d say one more year of juniors probably one year in the A oh so so maybe two more years out yeah i cuz he missed this year with injury essentially yeah he played half the season and then he was out with hip surgery so he’s going to need a year it was an elective surgery though right he he elected to It was It was something that they knew that if they didn’t fix it now it they they’d have to fix it later and it’s better to do it now so we can play juniors and not get too banged up jay Stevens of the Puck Report hanging out with us giving us all kinds of NHL insight we talked Stanley Cup at the top of the two giving you some thoughts on that fourth round or fourth overall pick and I I’m I’m more leaning on the end of of what you were talking about i’d like to see him move it and I’d like to see them get some veteran leadership in only because I’m just a little bit jaded from last year’s picks and like this thought of well we got to let it percolate and we’re going to have to it’s like nah let’s get to postseason let’s see a move that makes this team postseason eligible right now because I’m getting really impatient be Pittsburgh after watching this postseason and this this Stanley Cup play i think everybody in this state is hungry to see the Mammoth make that move and start into their postseason because I also want to see Coach Bear get some real postseason experience as a head coach and I want to see this front office get get more experience i know Armstrong built the the Blues that made a run and won a championship and I I want him to establish that here in Utah i want to get that started as quickly as possible we’ll come back and wrap this up final thoughts on the Mammoth and their draft situation and also the prediction for tomorrow’s game six back in Florida that’s all coming from Jay Stevens next on Hansen Scotty every show is available in podcast form by searching Hans and Scotty on your favorite podcasting platform or online at kslsports.com this is Hance Olsen and Scotty G on 975 the KSL Sports Zone all right you called game four an Edmonton win in OT it ended up being an Edmonton win in OT you called game five saying no Edmonton stank’s a little low right now florida’s got momentum and you were right florida goes on they win game five they’ve got a 3-2 lead heading into game six back in Florida tell me what happens tomorrow in Florida i I it’s just going to be more Florida domination i think the last game Edmonton showed that they weren’t ready to go to the next level not all their players were firing on all cylinders i think you see Skinner back in net but I still think you see a 5-2 loss and it’s over wow florida in six yeah I really wanted it to go seven i I’ve enjoyed this series but I think it’s over i’m begging for a game seven back in Edmonton i hope I’m wrong i hope I’m wrong oh my gosh florida beating Edmonton in a game seven in Edmonton watching the fans come undone would just be a masterpiece yeah i I really want to see McDavid win a cup but you know maybe he’ll just go to an American team uh how excited do you get for the draft you excited i get pretty excited now i you know I don’t think I really paid that much attention to it until Utah got an NHL team but now I’m way more vested you know I know I’m going to go to the majority of the home games again and I I want to see the Mammoth do well is Bill Armstrong he’s the total powerhouse when it comes to genius he is a genius when it comes to it it’s just in his hands that’s why last year I thought I knew what was going to happen and I had no and then they just went a complete different way and that’s why I wrote this article last week and I put it out i’m like this is what everything in my being tells me to do and then I went home and I’m like he’s not going to do that i’m like I need to write another article so I did it i wrote I I went through each team and I and you want to know who I what I think is going to happen i think I think we’re going to trade either with Pittsburgh which would give them our fourth pick would give us a a solid top six forward probably not a center like we need but probably a wing like Brian Rust um or who else uh Ricard Raquel and then that gives us the 10th pick so we still get that kid they like i don’t know that they actually like Yeah and we get And we get a veteran that immediately helps us balance out you said Rust has a couple of finals yeah two cups wow so and then or Boston and I think Boston makes more sense to me the pick’s a little bit less but you could pick up a guy like Charlie Mackoy because Boston’s back what 16 yeah so it just makes it so No they’re 17 they’re 17 so it just makes it those two teams make it feel to me like they’re ready to dish off a big name give us two picks for our one pick so we’d get we’d get you know if we get Brian Rustin then we get or we get Raquel we get their draft pick and then a second round draft pick and we just add to our stock but then that balances us out that helps us right now so that we make the playoffs so that the the Mammoth make the playoffs right now and we get that kind of experience for that team well that’s what you need because you need to start giving the coolies and killers of the world you need to give them that that postseason experience and and let them start to build jay you’re the best thanks for coming out to Ogden hanging out in this show this showroom doesn’t suck to do a showroom amazing that’s it for us we’ll hand it off to JJ and Alex coming
• Utah Puck Report host Jay Stevens joined the show for an hour to discuss NHL Finals, NHL draft and more
